Next day, we drove to Swaziland via some commercially forested areas. Crossing the border, the police took the chassis number of the car to check that it matched the registration plates, wasn't reported stolen and so on. Obviously, with crime being rife in South Africa, it's attractive for people to take stolen cars across the border. First stop in Swaliland was the small town of Nhlangano, which is surprisingly modern. Further reading told me that Swaziland is a middle income country (like South Africa, Morocco, Botswana, Namibia) and so poverty is not quite so rife. HIV though is perhaps more common in Swaziland than anywhere else in the world with one newspaper reporting in 2005 that 43% of Swazis are HIV+. In South Africa it's more like 19% and a huge economic problem as well as social problem. We stopped by the side of the road and walked up the hill to a village. Rachel and I went to the primary school and asked to look inside. In other parts of Africa, teachers are incredibly enthused to see Westerners visiting their needy school but hear, the teacher we saw was suspicious. She relunctantly allowed us in and seemed a little bitter. There were lots of text books scattered around the room, which was a good sign although I was surprised to learn that Swazis do not receive free primary education unless they are orphans. Poorer countries in Africa do manage to provide free primary education as, let's be honest, it's a priority!

We drove towards the heart of Swaziland via a road where we gave lots of lifts to hitchers and settled at a backpackers in the "royal Ezulwini valley". We visited the National Museum not far away and the nearby King Sobhuza II memorial. Both provided us with info on Swazi history and culture. The nearby stadium was hosting a school dance contest, which we went to take a quick look at. On the grassy car park, we chatted to a drunk taxi driver. He was being paid 18 pounds for the full day's hire and he was persuading me to have a beer (the young lads he was chauffering were drunk and on the look out for school girls for a bit of jiggy jiggy). I read in the newspapers that the Swazi Minister of Economy or Tourism or something like that was complaining that the police were fining too many motorists for drink-driving as not allowing people to drink and drive was reducing leisure revenue as fewer people want to go out for some fun if they can't drink and then drive home. Hmmm...have they heard of DES? (British will hopefully understand that).

We spent the afternoon in Mbabane, the capital city. It might as well have been in South Africa as it was modern, quite built up and there were clearly plenty of people with spare cash! We stayed the night in a friendly backpackers in Mlilwane wildlife sanctuary, saw a "traditional" dance and then drove around the sanctuary the following morning. It was pretty and has lots of antelopes, zebras, hippos etc. It allows for nice walks but we had no time for that! We spent lunchtime in Manzini (the largest city), which was bustling and much more African than Mbabane. In the afternoon, we went to the annual reed dance ceremony at the King's Palace. It is one of the two major cultural events in Swaziland each year and involved hundreds of colourfully-dressed women with tall reeds. Zulu women also attend and a few female tourists joined in! We were within 20 metres of the King of Swaziland and security was comically relaxed. One could run walk in front of or behind the King when he was seated and shoot him no problem. Clearly, Swaziland hasn't annoyed any country or radicals of any religious group lately so they need not worry! The King, mind you, has about 13 wives (his father had over 70 when he died) and a large number of cars including a $500,000 Daimler Chrysler Maybach 62. He did want to buy himself a jet for $45 million but that was shelved. Each of his wives gets a new palace built. So it's no wonder he gets criticised in the Western media when 4 in 10 people have HIV and many people are starving! This kind of press causes bad press on Africa as a whole as so many people think "oh yes, that must be happening every in Africa so what's the point of donating money to the poor?" I'm afraid it isn' t happening everywhere in Africa! The distribution of money in Swaziland was very odd even when the royals are discounted.

Then drove into Mozambique.